USA > New York > Westchester County > History of Westchester County, New York, from its earliest settlement to the year 1900 > Part 51
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THE CAPTURE OF ANDRE
reported to Jameson that Paulding, Williams, and Van Wart were alone directly responsible for the capture; in the second place, it appears that Dean regarded the taking of a spy as of the nature of hangman's work, with which few people should care to be associated. It is known, furthermore, that this feeling on his part gave rise to a disagreement with the other members of the party, a circumstance which may in part have made the others the more willing to belittle Dean's share in the capture. That Dean died (1817) long before the most, if not all, of the rest may be cited as a final reason why he has not been given the credit he deserves; for some of the statements -Dean himself never made any-collected from the survivors date later than 1830, statements which, like those of aged people gener- ally, are found to vary widely in matters of fact. There have been two tendencies evident in the accounts which come from the men themselves: the first is for the captors to rather ignore their asso- ciation with the remainder of their party, and the second is for the latter to demand greater recognition than they deserve. From the first tendency the men were not apt to refer to John Dean, a man who himself did not want to be associated with the capture of a spy, and from the second they were most apt to ignore the claims of the one who might, had he been so disposed, have given them in his report the credit that they wished.
The fact seems to be that Dean had a golden opportunity of ad- vancing himself, and knowingly rejected it, as he did his share of Andre's effects, which the others divided. As the ranking officer of the party, and the senior in years of most, if not all, of them, he might have forwarded his own interests to the degree perhaps of securing a captainey, if he had been so disposed. lle might, at least, have shown that from the time of the capture till the time the pris- oner was safely delivered to Jameson, the responsibility had been his; that Andre was not retaken or had not secured his escape through bribery was due to his care as the commanding officer; that the great importance of the concealed papers was first really recognized by him at a time when Andre was pleading for his release and making promises which Dean, if not the others, had a very strong suspicion that the British officer both could and would fulfill. All this is leav- ing out of account the question as to whether the actual placing of the captors had been the work of Sergeant Dean. Had he been disposed to press his claims he could certainly have brought forward a strong case, none the less so that he was a man of considerable education for his day and was supported by his excellent record as a subaltern. And there is no doubt that in this event he could have counted on the warm support of his father, Thomas Dean, long time
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town clerk and justice of the peace, together with that of his captain and colonel.
The documents found on Andre's person were all in Arnold's hand- writing, and in the most specific manner presented the particulars of the works and garrison at West Point. Two or three of them were abstracts of official American records. One was indorsed " Re- marks on West Point, a copy to be transmitted to His Excellency, General Washington," and gave exact details of the weakness of the forts, the case with which they could be set on fire, the best means of approach, and the like. Another was a " Copy of a Council of War, held September 6, 1780," embodying the most secret infor- mation of the general military situation from the American point of view. Thus Arnold, in his zeal, did not content himself with betray- ing his own post, but was fain to communicate to the enemy all the vital intelligence in his possession.
As related by Mr. Couch, the capturing party took Andre to the nearest American post, in the Town of North Castle, where Lieu- tenant-Colonel Jameson was in command. This officer, though brave and honest, seems to have possessed none too much intelligence, and, moreover, was easily hoodwinked by the courtly Andre. He ex- amined the papers, and sent them by messenger to Washington; but harboring no suspicion against Arnold, he not only wrote a letter to that general describing the capture, but at the same time turned over the prisoner to Lieutenant Allen, who was to bear the letter, instructing him to deliver Andre to Arnold! But, very fortunately, Major Benjamin Tallmadge, who was attached to Jameson's com- mand, but at the time was absent on duty, soon afterward returned to the camp; and, being informed by Jameson of what he had done, urgently advised that the prisoner be brought back. Jameson con- sented, but permitted the message to go to Arnold. It was next decided to send the captive (whose real identity was not yet known) to Lower Salem (now Lewisboro), a place farther within the American lines than North Castle, and therefore more secure, and have him held there until Washington should be heard from. This was ac- cordingly done early on the morning of the 24th, Tallmadge being in command of the escort; and indeed from that day until Andre was hung he remained with the prisoner.
Arrived at Lower Salem, the supposed Anderson was installed in " Squire " Gilbert's farmhouse-a dwelling which was torn down about a quarter of a century ago, unsuccessful efforts having been made by the late Hon. John JJay to have it permanently preserved as a Revolutionary relic. Here Lieutenant Joshua King (afterward General King, of Connecticut) was in command. He has left the
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following description of the appearance and reception of the prisoner: " He looked somewhat like a reduced gentleman. His small clothes were nankin, with long white top boots, in part his undress military suit. Ilis coat purple, with gold lace, worn somewhat threadbare, with small brimmed tarnished beaver on his head. He wore his hair in a queue, with long, black band, and his clothes somewhat dirty. In this garb I took charge of him. After breakfast my barber came in to dress me, after which I requested him to undergo the same operation, which he did. When the ribbon was taken from his hair I observed it full of powder. This circumstance, with others that occurred, induced me to believe that I had no ordinary person in charge. He requested permission to take a bed, whilst his shirt and small clothes could be washed. I told him that was needless, for a change was at his service, which he accepted. We were close pent up in a bed-room with a guard at the door and window. There was a spacious yard before the door which he desired he might be per- mitted to walk in with me. I accordingly disposed of my guard in such a manner as to prevent escape." Andre's mind was ill at ease, especially when informed that the documents taken from him had been sent to Washington and not to Arnold. He finally requested pen and paper, and wrote a letter to Washington disclosing who he was, giving his version of his adventures and making very brave observations about his own nice sense of honor and his refined conception of how so singularly noble a British gentleman should be treated in the circumstances-representations for which he contin- ued to show special aptitude until the hangman's noose tightened about his neck. He instructs Washington as to the latter's appro. priate duty in these words: " The request I have to make to your Excellency, and I am conscious I address myself well, is that in any rigor policy may dictate, a decency of conduct toward me may mark that, though unfortunate, I am branded with nothing dishonorable." Then he proceeds to display the loftiness of his nature by this threat : " I beg the liberty to mention the condition of some gentlemen at Charleston, who, being either on parole or under protection, were engaged in a conspiracy against ns. Though their situation is not similar, they are objects who may be set in exchange for me, or are persons whom the treatment I receive might affect."
Andre remained under close guard in the Gilbert house until sent for by Washington. There is nothing of special local Westchester County interest to add to Mr. Conch's further narrative.
The captors of Major Andre, John Paulding, David Williams, and Isaac Van Wart, were all Westchester County farmers' sons born and bred.
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John Panlding was born near Tarrytown, October 16, 1758, and at the time of Andre's capture was therefore not quite twenty-two years old. He was descended from carly settlers of Philipseburgh Manor. llis grandfather, Joseph Panlding, owned a large traet of land east of Tarrytown (where John was born), and had four sons, all of whom were patriot soldiers in the Revolution. John received a common school education, and then worked for farmers in different parts of our county. He was a magnificent specimen of manhood, over six feet tall and well proportioned. Esponsing the patriot cause like all of his family, he was engaged in various minor enterprises against
Mo Phila.
HOUSE NEAR PEEKSKILL WHERE CAPTAIN HOOGLAND STOPPED WITH ANDRE.
the enemy in the Neutral Ground. According to his own testimony, he was taken prisoner three times during the war. On the first occasion he was captured at White Plains, and on the second near Tarrytown, only four days before the arrest of Andre. The com- mon report is that while in New York during his second captivity he exchanged his coat for that of a German yager. It was this habiliment that he wore when he halted Andre, a circumstance to which the latter's supposition that the party were friends is thought to have been due. After the capture of Andre, he says, he was taken a third time, in a wounded condition, and " lay in the hospital in New York, and was discharged on the arrival of the news of peace there." The farm given him by the State was located in the Town of
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THIE CAPTURE OF ANDRE
Cortlandt, and consisted of one hundred and sixty acres and sixteen roods, being the confiscated property of Dr. Peter Huggeford, a Loyalist. He disposed of it after some years, and removed to a farm near Lake Mohegan (Yorktown), where he died on the 18th of Feb- ruary, 1818. He lies buried in the cemetery of Saint Peter's Episcopal Church1 near Peekskill, and over his grave is a monument with an elaborate inscription, erected " As a memorial sacred to public grati- tude " by the corporation of the City of New York on the 22d of November, 1827. One of Paulding's sons was Hiram Paulding, of the United States Navy, who was presented with a sword by congress for services in the War of 1812, and during the Civil War became a rear-admiral and was in command of the Brooklyn Navy Yard.
David Williams was the son of After and Phebe Williams, and was born in Tarrytown, October 21, 1754. He was the oldest of the raptors. " 1 first entered the continental army in the year 1775." he says in a public statement, " and continued in the service until disabled by having my feet frozen. I was then obliged to take what employment I could meet with for my support, chopping, grabbing. and all such work-living about twenty miles from my house and family." He was a volunteer in Captain Daniel Martling's Tarrytown company, served under General Montgomery in the expedition to Canada, and took an active part in the contests of the Neutral Ground. He received from the State, June 16, 1783, the confiscated farm of the Loyalist Edmund Ward, of the Town of Eastchester, a property of two hundred and fifty-two and one-half aeres. Edmund Ward was the only brother of the well-known patriot, Stephen Ward. Sub- sequently Williams removed to Livingstonville, Schoharie County, N. Y., where he bought a farm of General Daniel Shays, and lived there until his death, August 2, 1831. lle was a highly respected citizen, and left sons and daughters from whom numerons descend- ants have sprung. His bones lie near the Old Fort, Schoharie Village, where a handsome monument was erected over them by the State of New York in 1876.
Isaac Van Wart, according to Bolton's genealogical records, was a grandson of Joachim Van Weert, a Dutchman, who became a set- tler of Philipsburgh Manor in 1697. The date of Isaac's birth is un- certain, but he was christened on the 25th of October, 1758. The Van Warts were a patriotic family, residing in the present Town of Green-
1 It Is of Interest that one of the principal benefactors of Saint Peter's Church was the Tory son-in-law of the third Frederick Phil- Ipse, Beverly Robinson, who was on the " Anlinro " with Andre on the night of Sep- tember 21. 1750, and, Indeed, was the person to whom Arnold's communleatlon, signifying
that he wished Andre to come ashore, was ad- dressed. Robinson presented to the church a globe of two hundred acres, lying in Putnam County, just above the Westchester Ine. This farm is now owned by Judge Smith Lent, of Sing Sing.
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burgh; and Martinus, the father of Isaac, performed some service in the war. Isaac Van Wart was granted by the State a farm in Put- nam County (then a part of Dutchess County), but desiring to live and die in the neighborhood where he was brought up, sold it and bought the old Youngs property, where the " Affair of Youngs's House " occurred, in what is now the Town of Mount Pleasant. He died May 23, 1828. He was an esteemed member of the oll Green- burgh Church of Elmsford, this county, in whose churchyard his remains lie, marked by a marble monument elaborately inseribed, which was dedicated June 11, 1829. One of his sons, Rev. Alexander Van Wart, delivered the prayer at the dedication of the new Tarry- town monument to Andre's captors, September 23, 1880.
For nearly forty years after the capture of Major Andre, no ques- tion was ever raised as to the genuine patriotic character of the ac- tion of Paulding, Williams, and Van Wart in taking him into cus- tody, or as to their entire private disinterestedness and noble con- tempt for gain. But in 1817 Colonel Benjamin Tallmadge, then a representative in congress from Connecticut, saw fit to make a sen- sational statement before that body in a speech opposing an applica- tion by John Paulding for an increase of his pension. Tallmadge was the officer into whose charge Andre was given, as we have seen. The following is the substance of his statement, as reported at the time:
The value of the service he did not deny, but, on the authority of the declarations of Major Andre (made while in the custody of Colonel Tallmadge), he gave it as his opinion that, if Major Andre could have given to these men the amount they demanded for his release, he never would have been hung for a spy, nor in captivity on that occasion. Mr. T.'s statement was minutely circumstantial, and given with expressions of his individual confidenee in its eor- rectness. Among other circumstances, he stated that when Major Andre's hoots were taken off by them it was to search for plunder, and not to detect treason. These persons, indeed, he said, were of that elass of people who passed between both armies, as often in one eamp as the other, and whom, he said, if he had met with them, he should probably have as soon apprehended as Major Andre, as he had always made it a rule to do with these suspicions persons. The eonelusion to be drawn from the whole of Mr. Tallmadge's statement, of which this is a brief abstraet, was that these persons had brought in Major Andre only be- cause they probably should get more for his apprehension than for his release.
This remarkable version of the matter excited great interest, and Tallmadge was fiercely attacked in debate, whereupon he
again rose, and stated more eireumstantially what had been related to him by Major Andre. The major, he said, told him that the eaptors took him into the bushes and drew off his boots in the act of plundering him, and there, between his stockings and feet, they found the papers; that they asked him what he would give them to let him go; that he offered them his wateh and money, and promised them a considerable sum besides-but that the difficulty was in his not being able to seenre it to them, for they had no idea of trusting to his honor. Colonel Tallmadge declared that Andre was above all falsehood or duplicity, and felt ready to die with shame at being in such a mean disguise-nay, begged for a military eloak to cover him.
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At the time when this attack on the three captors was made, all of them were still living. Van Wart, in an affidavit, declared that Andre, in trying to persuade them to accept a bribe, " told them that if they doubted the fulfillment of his promise they might conceal him in some secret place and keep him there until they could send to New York and receive their reward." Williams, some years later, stated that Andre, after first proffering one hundred guineas, " offered ns one thousand guineas if we would let him go. We again answered No. The last offer he made us was ten thousand guineas and as many dry goods as we should ask for, and he would give us his order on Sir Henry Clinton, chief commander of New York, if we wonkl only consent to let him escape after the money and dry goods, or any- thing else we should please to name, should be received. We said his offers were of no use, we were resolved to do our duty to our country."
One of the results of the discussion stirred up by Tallmadge's state- ment was the publication of the following certificate, signed by seven- teen old and reputable residents of our county (the first name on the list being that of the venerable Jonathan G. Tompkins):
We, the subscribers, inhabitants of the County of Westchester, do certify that during the Revolutionary War we were well acquainted with Isaac Van Wart, David Williams, and John Paulding, who arrested Major Andre; and that at no time during the Revolutionary War was any suspicion entertained by their neighbors or acquaintances that they or either of them held any undne intercourse with the enemy. On the contrary, they were universally esteemed and taken to be ardent and faithful in the cause of the country. We further cer- tily that the said l'aukling and Williams are not now resident among us, but that Isaac Van Wart is a respectable freehohler of the Town of Mount Pleasant; that we are well acquainted with him; and we do not hesitate to declare our belief that there is not an individual in the County of Westchester acquainted with Isaac Van Wart who would hesitate to describe him as a man whose integrity is as unimpeachable as his veracity is undoubted. In these respects no man in the County of Westchester is his superior.
The incident ended in the vindication of the captors to the satis- faction of everybody. Incidentally varions facts illustrative of the true character of Andre were brought to light.
That he was an accomplished officer and a pleasing young gentle- man is undoubted; but there is nothing in his career or personality, so far as known, to justify any positive sentiments to his advantage. He had a vast deal to say regarding his sensitive honor-that is all that is positively known on the subject, excepting certain circum- stances of his behavior which were inconsistent with the sounding profession. On the 7th of September, while devising ways and means to meet Arnold under some plausible pretext, he wrote to Colonel Sheldon, of the American army, a very artfully contrived letter over his assumed name of John Anderson, soliciting assistance in the premises on the pretense that the business was of " so private a
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nature that the public on neither side can be injured by it." Sir Henry Clinton and Colonel Beverly Robinson deemed it incompati- ble with Andre's position as adjutant-general of the British army for him to go within the American lines at all, especially in disguise. and counseled him against doing so; but Andre had no such fine seruples-until found ont, when, as related by Tallmadge, he was " ready to die with shame." And there exists strong testimony that this was not Andre's first sneaking venture of the kind. According to British authority, he had already " been twice to Arnold, had acted as his valet de chambre, and twice returned sate to New York." 1 Moreover, on good evidence it was alleged that during the siege of Charleston in the early part of 1780, Andre did spy duty disguised as a cattle driver.2 While in Philadelphia with Howe in the memora- ble winter of 1777-78, Andre had quarters in the house of Benjamin Franklin; and it is notorious that upon the evacuation of the city by the British army he packed up and carried away some of the most valuable of Dr. Franklin's books and other property-conduct con- trasting with that of the mercenary General Knyphansen, who, in taking his departure from his quarters in the house of General Cad- wallader, "sent for the agent of the latter, gave him an inventory which he had caused his steward to make out on his first taking pos- session, told him he would find everything in proper order, even to some bottles of wine in the cellar, and paid him the rent for the time he occupied it." 3
But it is hardly necessary to cite such instances as these of Andre's moral obliquity. Ilis behavior after his capture in two vital partic- ulars is sufficiently illuminating. His letter to Washington from Salem, seeking to purchase immunity for himself by threatening the death of others, can not be otherwise regarded than as an act for- eign to any sense of manly honor whatever; and his denunciation of his three captors to Major Tallmadge as common brigands was as infamous a performance if not wholly justified, and as gratuitously malignant a one if well founded, as ever a professed elegant gentle- man was guilty of. These individuals were not Andre's equals; they were poor unlettered peasant boys, utterly beneath any subsequent private allusion on his part except that of magnanimity, naturally due from a superior soul. Knowing full well that they had saved the very liberties of their country, he must have been aware that this fact was a thing of tremendous importance to them personally; and if he could have said no good of them he should have whispered
1 London Political Magazine, November, 1780.
2 Winthrop Sargent's Life of Andre, 228.
3 Niles's Register, March 1, 1817.
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no evil. Instead he sought to blast their reputations. It was a pitiful deed.
The object of Tallmadge's attack on the captors in congress was to establish that they were not disinterested patriots, but ordinary thieving adventurers of the Neutral Ground. This was his private opinion as an American officer, but he of course never would have expressed it as a mere unsupported conjecture of his own. It was by giving Andre's unfavorable version of the behavior and motives of the captors that he expected to make the matter appear in a different light from that in which it was generally regarded. There is not a scintilla of testimony, direct or circumstantial, except Andre's, to suggest even a suspicion that the young men, when they found that a questionable character had fallen into their hands, were ruled by speculative considerations. They were by the roadside on guard in the American interest, to do whatever chance might put in their way as patriotic inhabitants of the Neutral Ground. Before Andre came along several men passed who were known to them as patriots, and whom they permitted to go about their business without so much as accosting them. Then came Andre, a stranger on horseback, of doubtful appearance. They intercepted him, shrewdly interrogated him, and found that he was a man attempting to play a double part. They searched him. In his pockets they found, besides a valuable watch, what to them was a considerable sum of money. But this did not content them. They wanted to know whether he had any hidden papers, and pulled off his boots and stock- ings. They found papers and at once realized that he was a spy. Now came the crucial test. He offered them very large bribes-auy amount of money and merchandise,-promises which, from the whole personality of the man and the vital character of the secret docu- ments he bore, they must have known he could make good. The cleverness with which they questioned him in the first place shows that they were men of alert perceptions and not dull country hinds. At least they could not doubt that here was a decidedly promising chance for a splendid financial speculation, without the least risk. His proposal that two of them should hold him hostage while the third should go to New York and get the ransom was capable of easy execution. It was early in the day. All of them were known to everybody in the neighborhood as loyal Americans, and any one of them could have gone unquestioned to the nearest British post, hoen forwarded thence to New York, and returned the same night. Or two of them could have gone, or even all three, for the whole party was eight in number, the five original companions of Paulding, Will-
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